The present invention relates to an industrial robot having articulated arms, and more particularly to a mechanism for driving a robot hand.
Industrial robots include a differential gear mechanism for swinging and rotating a robot hand in a related manner. One conventional type of industrial robot has two differential gear mechanisms incorporated in the robot hand and a robot hand driving device, respectively, so that rotation of one of the differential gear mechanisms can be reversed and transmitted to the other to cancel out unwanted rotation of the latter differential gear mechanism. Inclusion of two differential gear mechanisms however, renders the robot large in size, and results in reduced robot motive capability due to an increased inertia of the movable parts. Another way of eliminating unnecessary motion of the robot hand is by a software approach in which the motor is driven by the results of the arithmetic operations effected by a control unit of the robot. However, the control unit required for executing such a program is relatively complex.